# Chapter 73
Lee Hwan was biting his lip and habitually fiddling with his mask when he suddenly realized that Taesung had already seen his face, and he lowered his hand. Come to think of it, this was the first time they were meeting since that day.
“…What are you doing here?”
He asked first, wondering what Taesung was plotting. Frustratingly, the answer didn’t come right away. Taesung silently checked his inner combat suit once more, and only after a few seconds passed did he open his mouth with an expressionless face.
“Two people.”
“Excuse me?”
“It seems you’re short on personnel.”
His tone and expression were so nonchalant that Lee Hwan almost found himself naturally agreeing with a “That’s right…” What is this guy talking about? Lee Hwan blinked a couple more times before furrowing his eyebrows.
“There’s no need for you to come all the way here for that. Someone will be here soon. Two people. Right?”
“A Hunter?”
“…”
It was a question that seemed to say he knew exactly what Lee Hwan was thinking. It sounded like a warning that lies wouldn’t work here. Moreover, the combat suit Taesung was wearing now… that outfit that completely wrapped his firm body was creeping up on Lee Hwan’s anxiety.
“So now… don’t tell me you’re saying you’re going to enter the gate with me?”
Despite the evident reluctance in the question, Taesung’s face didn’t change at all. Once again, a calm answer came back flatly, without any excitement.
“Otherwise, we could both give up and go back.”
They say you should be careful what you wish for. At the answer that suggested he himself had nothing to lose, Lee Hwan almost rolled his eyes. What is this, is this how he’s getting revenge?
In fact, Lee Hwan had worried about this briefly. What if Taesung assigned someone to interfere with his work at every turn? So he had felt a little relieved, though guilty, knowing that Taesung was isolated both politically within the company and within his family at this time. After all, he hadn’t seen even Jade getting involved anywhere since that day when he mentioned experiments.
But mocking that assumption, he never expected Taesung to show up in person. An uncomfortable feeling scraped his throat like sandpaper.
‘Of all times to meet, when I’ve been irritating everyone trying to get this gate…’
If he took a hard line, he might provoke Taesung and lose the gate and everything else. But being compliant didn’t feel right either, as he was still angry about what he had heard last time. It was awkward to face him, and part of him wanted to just give up for today and go home…
But how could he just walk away from an opportunity he had worked so hard to get? Despite his suspicions, there were too many valuable things to give up the gate entry like this.
First of all, it was questionable whether he could secure the same gate again with Taesung watching him with such intensity. And there was no guarantee that there would be no interference next time just because he backed down this time.
Moreover, he judged that this might be exactly what Taesung was aiming for—for him to give up the gate and just go home.
If they had met elsewhere, he might have considered it, but meeting at the gate entrance like this made it impossible to shake him off and go inside. What if he provoked Taesung and angered him? Would he storm off like last time, unable to control his anger?
“Give up? You seem a bit impatient. I’m worried you might follow me in and get in the way.”
“Then there’s nothing to worry about. Aren’t you getting ready to enter?”
He was caught up in it instead. While Lee Hwan was at a loss for words, Taesung very naturally finished his remaining preparations and stood in front of the gate.
Without time to hesitate, the entrance opened, and now the situation was really either enter or flee. Lee Hwan held his head and looked troubled, then followed the retreating figure disappearing into the dim gate.
* * *
“Are you in your right mind?”
“…”
“Why would you just jump into someone else’s gate?”
“…”
“I don’t think I need to follow you in that direction.”
The inside of the gate had a cave-like enclosed structure. There were multiple paths, but with a map, it was easy to find the right direction. However, for Lee Hwan, who needed to examine various paths, this fact was more of a disadvantage.
“If you have nothing to say, I’ll go separately.”
“Stay close to the left and narrow the gap.”
Moreover, Taesung wouldn’t answer any other remarks, but whenever Lee Hwan lagged behind while reluctantly following, he would stop and wait for him as if he had eyes on the back of his head. Yet he never turned his head, as if avoiding even the possibility of making eye contact.
“…Anyone watching would really think you came to explore the gate.”
Even though Lee Hwan muttered loudly enough to be heard, Taesung continued advancing steadily along the path, examining the map as he usually did when working. He surely must have come to interfere with Lee Hwan, but it was hard to understand what he was thinking.
‘What kind of crazy person barges into someone else’s gate and takes the lead… Oh, there he is.’
Of course, being at the front was always the difficult position. In such a dangerous place, one had to thoroughly check the surroundings with every step and remain tense until the end. Since both offensive and defensive capabilities were required, with body-blocking being a basic requirement in emergencies, it would have been a good thing for Lee Hwan, whose injuries hadn’t completely healed yet.
‘But the problem is I need to search the gate this time…’
How could he shake him off? While he was pondering this, the path gradually led to the central part, and as expected, the first battle began not long after they entered.
Shaaaaah-!
A cave snake dropped from the ceiling as if flying. It was as thick as a thigh and looked capable of swallowing a person whole with room to spare. As Taesung lightly dodged and looked back, Lee Hwan tracked the snake’s trajectory and skillfully designated a space at the predicted position.
A joint attack began without a word exchanged between them.
Whack- Bang!
With flames, a couple of small explosions occurred, and the designated space burned bright red. As Lee Hwan withdrew his ability, the blackened snake corpse fell to the floor with a thud.
“They’re coming in a swarm.”
As Lee Hwan nodded, Taesung stepped back slightly to the side to clear the view. From the left corridor, a bluish mass was writhing and crawling at a terrifying speed.
“The path is to the right.”
Meaning the left corridor could be burned. Lee Hwan slowed the snakes’ speed with Spatial Control and placed a Shield in front of them. Soon, a series of whooshing sounds came from inside as flames burst out consecutively.
The snakes that managed to break through the flames were hit with precision by Lee Hwan’s Dolpeung, and he threw a knife to pierce one specimen that was climbing the wall and falling down.
Meanwhile, the left corridor had become so hot that heat waves were visible, and all the cave snakes inside had become oven-roasted.
Bang!
“Complete.”
The cave suddenly went quiet. As the thick smoke cleared, Taesung, who had used a light explosion in the middle of the snake swarm, brought up the map again. After confirming that there were no more writhing creatures, Lee Hwan also pulled out the knife stuck in the wall, flicked off the bodily fluids, and followed him.
“Appearing monsters: C-grade Blue-Striped Cave Snake, D-grade Long-Legged Cricket, C-grade Fang Bat, C-grade Red-Spotted Salamander, E-grade Blind Carp. Since we’ve extracted a gate scheduled for cleaning, we’ll go through all areas up to the dead-end lake zone. Any objections?”
“I don’t like you doing the briefing, but…”
“None, then.”
“I’d like to go separately from now on.”
Taesung still didn’t respond to that assertion and turned around. Lee Hwan, accustomed to being ignored, sighed softly and followed behind him.
‘And yet we work so well together in this situation.’
When Taesung gave him a signal, his body moved automatically before he could even think. With just simple directions, he could immediately understand what kind of attack Taesung was trying to make. Come to think of it, Taesung wasn’t the only one who seemed to enjoy their combat synergy. Lee Hwan’s own lips were curling up slightly too.
Perhaps because of this, Lee Hwan’s chest kept tightening as he planned to ditch Taesung and bolt. He kept this in mind throughout their walk together.
‘I need to accomplish my original goal before leaving.’
This was a gate where flying monsters appeared. When they entered that section, the two of them would need to be quite far apart. Unless Taesung really had eyes on the back of his head, there would inevitably be blind spots, and Lee Hwan would have to shoot all the monsters that escaped with his Dolpeung to clean them up.
Once there was enough distance between them, an opportunity to escape would come. While mid to low-level monsters could be handled easily with more people, it would be difficult without focus when there were just the two of them.
When Taesung was confirming kills at the end of a battle, Lee Hwan could sprint in the opposite direction to buy some time. Given Taesung’s personality, he wouldn’t follow until he had completed all verification, so Lee Hwan could avoid being tracked for a while without putting Taesung in danger.
‘I can’t search the entire gate. I just need to explore a few suspicious spots in that time.’
He had already sorted through the map before entering and had roughly selected directions in his mind while passing through the forks. Though not certain, he had a method to find hidden rooms.
Looking back at the time before the regression, two more rigorous exploration protocols had been added towards the end of his Supporter life. He had wondered why they were adding unnecessary complicated procedures when nothing was ever discovered using those methods, but then his team leader had said:
‘Well, we don’t know, but… wouldn’t that mean there was at least one hidden room or trap mechanism discovered using that method recently?’
He really had good instincts from his experience. Only after joining the exploration team did Lee Hwan learn that not all gate information was officially announced or passed to the support team.
Exploration methods added during those four years. And gates whose management methods had drastically changed with just a four-year difference. It was just speculation, but it was worth a try since he had nothing to lose.
When they entered an area where the ground was covered with black bat droppings, Lee Hwan quietly prepared himself mentally, creating distance as planned.
Zzzzzk- Kik-!
Squeak, squeak!
Spine-chilling sounds were flowing from up ahead. As Taesung pulled one leg slightly back to position himself, Lee Hwan also drew his Dolpeung, aimed it forward, and his eyes gleamed sharply.
Thwack! When Taesung threw a stone, the squeaking sounds stopped all at once, then transformed into dozens of monstrous cries.
Keeeeeee!
Kyaaaaaaak!
The corridor darkened from a distance, and suddenly dozens of bats flew in.
